The myth of the “unknown followers”

Out of fear of being hacked, users spread weird rumors.

Rumor has it, you can find “unknown followers” via a Facebook search, which could be potential hackers.

The post reads:

“Important – If you go to account settings, blocking or block users and type in “following me”, without the quotes, you might be surprised just who is following you. I just blocked 20 people that were somehow following me. I have no clue how they got there or who they were especially since my account always been set as private. I had to block them 1 at a time, I don’t think there is a way to do it all at once. Here’s the kicker….most of them were from middle eastern countries!! Creepy to say the least”

Ok, apparently you would find “unofficial” followers. Let’s try this out ourselves:

Screenshot Mimikama.at

Oh, there are a lot of unknown persons, but the text above clarifies what’s happening here. It says that this list of persons down below may show accounts who may not be your friends or followers. Facebook seems to already know about that urban legend. What kind of profiles do appear there then? Let’s take a look at the profile of our first search result:

Screenshot Mimikama.at

What? It’s basically the same warning from before! What happened? Facebook is showing you all profiles that have the words “following me” in one of their posts! So everyone who warns about potential hackers would appear to be one of those “hackers”. And the warning has gone full circle! As shown by other users commenting on that post:

Screenshot Mimikama.at

Conclusion

This warning is bullshit! Typing “following me” does NOT show you “unknown followers”, but those accounts that posted the words “following me” somewhere in their timeline. Worse: If you copy that warning you yourself land on that list – becoming one of those ominous “hackers” yourself.